Post by sirpaul on May 4, 2011 13:58:35 GMT -5
I love this story, the guy has a great arm and is only 26. He could be one of the best relievers for the Tribe in 20 years if that finger holds up. I'm rooting for him.
www.news-herald.com/articles/2011/05/04/sports/nh3963072.txt?viewmode=fullstory
By Jim Ingraham
JIngraham@News-Herald.com
There was a time during this four-year nightmare when Adam Miller could look down at the open wound at the base of the middle finger of his right hand and see the bone inside that finger.
That would be an alarming, horrifying condition for anyone.
For a professional baseball pitcher, who makes his living by throwing baseballs with his right hand, it's a career-ender.
A career-ender, and totally without precedent.
"As far as we know, there has never been a pitcher who has ever had an injury like this," said Indians farm director Ross Atkins.
Adam Miller, baseball player, is trying to make history by coming all the way back from an injury that isn't even a baseball injury. Or even a football injury. Or a basketball injury.
It's an injury most commonly found among rock climbers. That's symbolic enough for Miller, who is attempting to make the Mount Everest of all comebacks.
He began with a baby step last Saturday, when he pitched in a game of professional baseball for the first time since 2008.
Miller pitched one inning for Class A Kinston vs. Lynchburg. He gave up four runs on four hits, including a home run, with one walk and one strikeout.
"I felt great," Miller told Indians officials. "I'm glad to be here. Now I need to clean up the box score."
Statistically, it was a forgettable outing at the start of what everyone who knows Miller hopes will be an unforgettable comeback.
"It's incredible what he's accomplished," said Atkins. "He's pitching again."
Miller's injury is a complicated story of intertwined and entangled ligaments and tendons in his finger, a condition that came out of nowhere and required so many surgeries in the last four years that everyone has stopped counting.
It got so ugly, seemed so hopeless, so without progress, that there were many people, some of them with medical degrees, who told the Indians and Miller to forget it. That he would never pitch again.
Saturday, Miller pitched again.
He threw a baseball competitively, at 95 mph, for the first time since 2008, which was five years before Miller came blazing out of Plano, Texas as a sandwich pick — the 31st player taken overall — by the Indians in the 2003 June draft.
He was a high school phenom with a freight-train fastball and an unlimited ceiling. Baseball America ranked him as the No. 1 prospect in the Indians' organization every year from 2005-08.
He was going to be the Indians' Josh Beckett.
In spring training of 2007, Miller was the best pitcher in the Indians' camp. He pitched 14 innings and did not allow a run. In any other year, that would have earned him a spot in the opening-day rotation. But that 2007 Central Division championship staff included, among others, two 19-game winners (CC Sabathia and Fausto Carmona), and a 15-game winner (Paul Byrd).
There was no room at the inn for Miller, who on the day he was sent down gave it the old "you'll be hearing from me soon" shoulder shrug as he packed his bag to leave for the minor-league camp.
Then his finger blew up.
"But not once during all of this has he ever said, ‘What if?' or ‘Why me?' '' said Atkins. "Not once has he ever given up."
This was a kid who was a millionaire at 18. Miller's signing bonus from the Indians was $1.025 million. He could have looked at that shredded finger and walked away.
But he didn't.
"What comes through from all this is his passion for the game of baseball," said Atkins. "To go through such a mundane rehab for over two years like he did, without losing focus of the big picture, that's remarkable. You're talking about two years of constant rehab and zero baseball activity."
Miller didn't pitch at all in 2009 or 2010. Many thought he'd never pitch again, period.
Now it's 2011.
Miller is pitching again.
He's considered a reliever now. The days of him potentially being the Indians' Josh Beckett are long gone. He'll pitch one-inning stints at Kinston — as long as his finger holds up.
"We'll keep pushing him," said Atkins, "and if he strings together four or five good outings in a row, we'll get him out of there and move him to the next level."
Then the level after that, and so on.
This has never been about Miller's ability to pitch. It's been about his finger. That annoying, troublesome finger.
Can he do it? Can he come all the way back and finally throw a pitch for the first time ever in a major-league game? He's only 26. There's still time.
How can you not root for a guy like this?
A guy so doggedly determined to give his finger the finger.
www.news-herald.com/articles/2011/05/04/sports/nh3963072.txt?viewmode=fullstory
By Jim Ingraham
JIngraham@News-Herald.com
There was a time during this four-year nightmare when Adam Miller could look down at the open wound at the base of the middle finger of his right hand and see the bone inside that finger.
That would be an alarming, horrifying condition for anyone.
For a professional baseball pitcher, who makes his living by throwing baseballs with his right hand, it's a career-ender.
A career-ender, and totally without precedent.
"As far as we know, there has never been a pitcher who has ever had an injury like this," said Indians farm director Ross Atkins.
Adam Miller, baseball player, is trying to make history by coming all the way back from an injury that isn't even a baseball injury. Or even a football injury. Or a basketball injury.
It's an injury most commonly found among rock climbers. That's symbolic enough for Miller, who is attempting to make the Mount Everest of all comebacks.
He began with a baby step last Saturday, when he pitched in a game of professional baseball for the first time since 2008.
Miller pitched one inning for Class A Kinston vs. Lynchburg. He gave up four runs on four hits, including a home run, with one walk and one strikeout.
"I felt great," Miller told Indians officials. "I'm glad to be here. Now I need to clean up the box score."
Statistically, it was a forgettable outing at the start of what everyone who knows Miller hopes will be an unforgettable comeback.
"It's incredible what he's accomplished," said Atkins. "He's pitching again."
Miller's injury is a complicated story of intertwined and entangled ligaments and tendons in his finger, a condition that came out of nowhere and required so many surgeries in the last four years that everyone has stopped counting.
It got so ugly, seemed so hopeless, so without progress, that there were many people, some of them with medical degrees, who told the Indians and Miller to forget it. That he would never pitch again.
Saturday, Miller pitched again.
He threw a baseball competitively, at 95 mph, for the first time since 2008, which was five years before Miller came blazing out of Plano, Texas as a sandwich pick — the 31st player taken overall — by the Indians in the 2003 June draft.
He was a high school phenom with a freight-train fastball and an unlimited ceiling. Baseball America ranked him as the No. 1 prospect in the Indians' organization every year from 2005-08.
He was going to be the Indians' Josh Beckett.
In spring training of 2007, Miller was the best pitcher in the Indians' camp. He pitched 14 innings and did not allow a run. In any other year, that would have earned him a spot in the opening-day rotation. But that 2007 Central Division championship staff included, among others, two 19-game winners (CC Sabathia and Fausto Carmona), and a 15-game winner (Paul Byrd).
There was no room at the inn for Miller, who on the day he was sent down gave it the old "you'll be hearing from me soon" shoulder shrug as he packed his bag to leave for the minor-league camp.
Then his finger blew up.
"But not once during all of this has he ever said, ‘What if?' or ‘Why me?' '' said Atkins. "Not once has he ever given up."
This was a kid who was a millionaire at 18. Miller's signing bonus from the Indians was $1.025 million. He could have looked at that shredded finger and walked away.
But he didn't.
"What comes through from all this is his passion for the game of baseball," said Atkins. "To go through such a mundane rehab for over two years like he did, without losing focus of the big picture, that's remarkable. You're talking about two years of constant rehab and zero baseball activity."
Miller didn't pitch at all in 2009 or 2010. Many thought he'd never pitch again, period.
Now it's 2011.
Miller is pitching again.
He's considered a reliever now. The days of him potentially being the Indians' Josh Beckett are long gone. He'll pitch one-inning stints at Kinston — as long as his finger holds up.
"We'll keep pushing him," said Atkins, "and if he strings together four or five good outings in a row, we'll get him out of there and move him to the next level."
Then the level after that, and so on.
This has never been about Miller's ability to pitch. It's been about his finger. That annoying, troublesome finger.
Can he do it? Can he come all the way back and finally throw a pitch for the first time ever in a major-league game? He's only 26. There's still time.
How can you not root for a guy like this?
A guy so doggedly determined to give his finger the finger.
